September 30, 1987
Truman's seventh thriller shows a deepening knowledge of her craft, topping her previous bestsellers, Murder in the White House, etc. CIA agent Colette Cahill heads a big cast of intriguers, American and foreign. Cahill's friend Barrie Nelson is a literary agent who dies suddenly on her way to meet a Hungarian author. The official verdict is heart failure, but Cahill suspects murder and investigates. The self-assignment takes her to the Virgin Islands, where Nelson's lover, a fellow agent, spies on Soviet visitors; to a psychiatrist in New York whom the dead woman had consulted; to Budapest and back to Washington. Everywhere Cahill is in imminent danger and embittered by evidence that neither the CIA nor rival intelligence agencies respect law, only one-upmanship. This is a colorful, seething story of cruelty and corruption that discloses how far the U.S. organization has deviated from its purpose since it was set up by President Truman in 1947written by one who knows.